After the Christmas Eve dinner, in Naples the table is only half cleared. Plates are pushed aside, the cards come out of the drawer, someone fetches a handful of beans or lentils: it is time for the tombola. In Campanian homes, between Christmas Eve and Epiphany, this very simple game keeps grandparents and grandchildren at the same table for hours. Here we explain where it comes from, how it is played and why in Naples it is never just a matter of numbers.
An origin linked to the Lotto
The most popular story links the tombola to the Lotto and to the eighteenth-century Kingdom of Naples. According to this tradition, when King Charles of Bourbon decided to regulate the Lotto, which Neapolitans adored, a very popular preacher, the Dominican friar Gregorio Maria Rocco, persuaded him to suspend the draws over Christmas so that gambling would not distract the faithful from prayer. Unwilling to give up their numbers, Neapolitans supposedly brought the Lotto home and turned it into a family game.
It is a charming and widely told story, but it should be taken for what it is: a tradition rather than a fact documented in every detail. Similar draw games also existed elsewhere in Italy. What is certain is that in Naples the tombola took on a character all its own, because it became intertwined with the Smorfia, the "book of dreams" that gives every number a meaning.
Cards, board and panariello
The kit never changes. Each player gets one or more cartelle, cards with fifteen numbers arranged in three rows of five. The numbers run from 1 to 90 and are printed on small wooden or plastic tokens kept in the panariello, the little basket from which they are drawn one at a time.
The caller keeps the tabellone in front of them, which many Neapolitans also call the «cartellone»: it shows all ninety numbers, split into six blocks matching six cards. The numbers drawn are marked on it so that every win can be checked, and the board often takes part in the game as if it were an extra player. To cover the numbers on the cards people use beans, lentils, chickpeas, tangerine peel or scraps of paper: every family has its habit.
Ambo, terno, quaterna, cinquina and tombola
Before starting, the stake is collected, usually a few coins each, and everyone agrees how to split it among the prizes. Wins follow a precise ladder, always on the same row of a card:
- ambo: two numbers drawn on the same row;
- terno: three numbers on the same row;
- quaterna: four numbers on the same row;
- cinquina: all five numbers of a row;
- tombola: all fifteen numbers on the card.
Many families add the tombolino, a prize for whoever completes a card right after the first winner, so the game does not end abruptly. Winners must call out before the next number is drawn: an ambo announced too late usually does not count, and that is where the evening's funniest arguments begin.
The Smorfia numbers
What makes the Neapolitan tombola unique is the way numbers are called. The caller rarely just says "forty-seven": more often they announce «'o muorto», the dead man, and everyone understands. Every number has its meaning in the Neapolitan Smorfia, and some are known to anyone who has spent Christmas in Campania: 1 is Italy, 25 is Christmas, 33 is the age of Christ, 47 the dead man and 48 the dead man who talks, 77 women's legs, 90 fear.
Whoever holds the cartellone becomes a bit of an actor: commenting, joking, teasing those present, building gags around the numbers just drawn. To discover the meanings and the history of the book of dreams, read our article on the Neapolitan Smorfia (in Italian).
The cheeky tombola and the tombolata
Alongside the family tombola there is a livelier version, the so-called tombola scostumata, the "cheeky" tombola. Numbers are called with double meanings and racy jokes, and the game becomes almost an improvised show. In the working-class quarters of Naples it is especially linked to the tradition of the tombola of the femminielli, which has long attracted the curious and enthusiasts alike.
Today real tombolate are organised all over the region: evenings in parishes, associations, squares and clubs, with dozens of players and prizes offered by the community. They are a simple way to be together during the holidays, and they often raise funds for neighbourhood projects.
Other holiday games
The tombola is not the only Christmas pastime. With Neapolitan cards people play mercante in fiera, sette e mezzo and scopa, and in many homes the games go on every evening until Epiphany. This too is a tradition handed down through the generations: grandparents teach the rules, grandchildren learn to bluff.
If you want to feel the festive mood outside as well, every year in Naples the Toy and Stocking Fair fills piazza Mercato in the days before Epiphany, and on 6 January the Firefighters' Befana abseils down the façade of the Royal Palace in piazza del Plebiscito. Between a stroll down San Gregorio Armeno and the AIAP nativity art exhibition, there is plenty of time to get home and play.
For more ideas see our article on Christmas Eve in Campania. And if you are invited to a tombola, bring a few coins and get ready to laugh: winning, as you know, is the last thing that matters.
